Court Sides With Borrowers On Loan Mods

In a decision last Thursday, the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals took the side of borrowers denied a permanent loan mod by their bank. The court said that even if the rejection by the bank was after a trial mod had been completed, the borrowers have the right to sue the bank for denying the permanent mod. It DOES NOT say the bank must agree to the permanent mod, just that the denied homeowner may then sue if it feels it has been wronged by the denial of the permanent mod. However, the court reversed the trial court on the issue, and giving an idea of how it felt about the merits of the case, noted that once the borrower had provided all required documents and paid all of its fees, the bank was contractually obligated to provide the permanent mod. The ruling came in two similar cases combined for appellate purposes: Corvello v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA and Lucia v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA. So, if you're having problems with your lender over a permanent mod, and the lender has previously provided a temporary mod and collected fees from you for it, you may want to have a conversation with your attorney and consider litigating the issue.

Mortgage Scammers Get A new "Home"

As of yesterday, four mortgage relief scam artists are finding out that if caught, they'll be getting free rent in a cozy room with bars on the windows for six to eight months each. The men, all from California, Jacob John Cunningham, 26; John D. Silva, 28; Justin Dennis Koelle, 23; and Dominic Adam Nolan, 32; all pleaded guilty to felony counts of conspiracy to collect illegal upfront fees and conspiracy to commit theft by false pretenses. Cunningham, Silva, and Koelle all pleaded guilty to two felonies, while Nolan pleaded guilty to one. In addition to the jail time, they also were handed five years probation, and a ban on working on loan mods or consulting about mortgages. Additionally, they must make restitution, the amounts to be determined in future hearings. They had fraudulently taken more than $130,000 from hundreds of homeowners, promising that they would be able to obtain loan mods. They claimed a 95% success rate. After receiving the fees from the victims, they neither obtained the mods or returned the fees. Once this scam had more or less run its course, they began to offer refinancing deals. These cost the borrowers 2.8%, and once the fees were paid to the scammers, they would provide Letters of Conditional Approval on servicers' letterhead. The investigations were handled by the Inspector General's Office of TARP, assisted by the Secret Service and various local law enforcement agencies. If you were scammed by any or all of these four, you probably should get in contact with the Inspector General at TARP.

Good News From GMAC

If you had your mortgage with GMAC, and were in some stage of foreclosure action by GMAC that you thought was incorrect, until now you had to stand on the sidelines and drool enviously as borrowers in similar situations to you with other major lenders got compensated by the huge deal under the Federal and OCC with those lenders. However, now the same deal has been reached with GMAC. As part of the settlement, GMAC has agreed to pay a total of $230 million to homeowners in this situation who were incorrectly placed there by GMAC. That sum will divided up among 232,000 GMAC borrowers who were any stage of foreclosure in 2009 or 2010. If you have any questions, call Rust Consulting at 1-888-952-9105. These questions can include how much you may be entitled to and details on the timing of the payment. As always, Good Luck.

Help From Fifth Third Bank

Fifth Third Bank has established a way to help those who are now out of work from falling victim to foreclosure. As I mention in my book, Save Your House From Foreclosure!, loss of a job is one of the four major causes of foreclosure. However, 5th Third has set up a possible way to avoid this fate when you lose your job. Working with it partner, NextJob, the bank helps its mortgage borrowers locate a new job. This gets the borrower back to work and re-establishes his/her ability to pay the mortgage, thus avoiding foreclosure. For details, contact your local Fifth Third branch, or log on to NextJob's web site, www.next-job.com . As always, good luck.

Expedited Foreclosure Bill Passes in Florida

At first blush, any law that talks about 'expedited foreclosure' would seem to be something that works against homeowners. However, in this case, the law, passed with bipartisan support in both houses of the Florida legislature, has a number of items that, in fact, work to the benefit of the homeowner who is facing foreclosure and unable to avoid it by any means at all. It only applies in the cases of when homeowners are not contesting the foreclosure, and, along with the lender, is seeking a speedy resolution to the specific foreclosure on their home. However, to the benefit of the homeowner, there are two very important details that are part of the law, and definitely benefit the homeowner. First, if there is a potential deficiency judgment that may be filed against the homeowner, it must be done in one year from date of foreclosure. Previously,a lender had up to five years to file such an action. For those of you unfamiliar with such an action, a deficiency judgment occurs in cases when the lender forecloses and, after sale of the home by them, nets less that they are owed. For example, you owe $300,000 and lose your home to foreclosure. When the bank sells it, they net only $175,000. The difference, $125,000 in this case, is the deficiency and the bank may legally sue you for that amount. So you've not only lost your home, you now face also owing them the difference that they couldn't get out of the home when they sold it. Not all states allow deficiencies, but many do. This law forces the bank to act more quickly or, if they fail to do so, terminates their right to come after you for a deficiency if they try after a year has passed from the foreclosure. The other benefit in the new law for homeowners is that a lender must prove it has the underlying promissory note from the loan before filing a foreclosure action. That note is the legal evidence of a debt that gives the lender the right to foreclose when you default on the mortgage. Often in the past, banks would say they had the right (and the note) to foreclose when in actual fact, they either couldn't find the note (for any number of reasons) or had lost it. No proof of note, no right to foreclose. With this law, the lender must show it actually physically possesses the note, or they cannot prevail in a foreclosure action. So, the word here is, if you're facing an unavoidable foreclosure, can't get a loan mod or do a short sale, check with your attorney about the protections this new law may provide you. If you can't afford a lawyer, call Legal Aid. That's what they're there for. Good Luck.

Smoother Short Sales

Short sales--not the most desirable path for most homeowners. However, there are, unfortunately, times when taking as foul tasting medicine is the best course. Short sales can be this medicine; sometimes short sales are at least a way of minimizing the personal damage to an owner's psyche and credit record. However, one of the biggest problems in trying to get a short sale completed is the hurdles that a lender always seems to place in front of the Seller. It's always, "You don't have all of the correct documents", or "this document is not filled out properly", or "we (the lender) don't agree with the valuation of your hoe", and on and on and on, ad nauseam. Well, at least in the case of Fannie Mae short sales, someone is attempting to do something to lessen the aggravation. Fannie has just announced a plan to streamline short sales that it is involved with. First announced this past February, it has been used successfully many thousands of short sales. When there is an accepted short sale offer, Fannie has the Realtors register the sale with them on www.Homepathforshortsales.com . Once registered, with the agent putting all relevant information, such as property address, MLS listing information, offer details, and subordinate lien information on this site. In addition, other supporting documents and information will be required such as scanned copies of the sales contract, estimated net sheet or HUD-1 settlement statement, and borrower authorization form. The site even has capability to smooth things out if issues such as problems with subordinate lien holders, sales amount or other items arise. In such instances, the agent asks the folks at Fannie to escalate the sale transaction process. On receipt of the escalation request, Fannie will contact the agent directly to closely review the hindering issue and try to commence a solution to it. This escalation process has already been successfully applied in over 10,000 short sales. So, if you have a loan with, or guaranteed by, Fannie, are having problems that cannot be remedied any other way and are actively considering a short sale, you might want to have your agent contact Fannie to take advantage of this process. As always, Good Luck.

ATTN: New York HSBC Borrowers!

If you have a home mortgage in NY state, and the lender is HSBC, listen up!! Apparently, under New York state law, before a lender can foreclose, they must file for what is called a Request for Judicial Intervention (RJI) within 60 days of commencing the foreclosure process. This is to possibly help homeowners avoid foreclosure. What the RJI does is to hold a judicial settlement conference between lender and borrower to allow the borrower to propose alternate methods to foreclosure on their homes. These could include loan mods or short sales, as well as other alternatives to the foreclosure to assist the homeowner retain the house. The NY state Attorney General has filed suit against HSBC alleging that the bank has failed to file the RJI's in a prompt manner (within the legal time limit), thus hindering homeowners from saving their homes from foreclosure. “Companies like HSBC are brazenly ignoring state law, leaving homeowners across New York stuck in a legal limbo where they can’t even get the legally required settlement conference that could help them keep their homes,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “For homeowners facing foreclosure, time is their greatest enemy. Every day spent waiting for a settlement conference is a day that the lender piles on additional interest, fees and penalties and the homeowner falls further behind.” According to the AG's office, over 300 cases have been identified where this has happened. These 300 cases were located in just four of New York's counties: Erie, Monroe, Suffolk and Bronx. However, if the bank has failed to do so in four counties, one must wonder if it has also done so in other parts of the state. So, the word here is: if your loan is with HSBC and you're having trouble with it, possibly facing foreclosure, you may want to contact the NY Atty. General's office and ask for some intervention on its part. As always, Good Luck.